§ Mr. OttawayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will identify the places in the studies by Ken Young and Nirmala Rao, "Coming to Terms with Change?" The Local government Councillor, in 1993 and the Audit Commission's publication "Representing the People—the 47W Role of Councillors", which indicate that councillors wish to spend more time in direct contact with those they represent. [62037]
§ Mr. RaynsfordPages 21–23 (including tables 3.5 and 3.6) in the study by Ken Young and Nirmala Rao—"Coming to Terms with Change? The Local Government Councillor", in 1993 show that many councillors, particularly those under 55 years old, felt they gave too little time to consulting with the public in meetings and dealing with electors' problems. Page 3 of the Audit Commission management paper—"Representing the People—The Role of Councillors" states that too much burden is placed on councillors, often unproductively, by committee meetings even though councillors believe that they should fulfil a wider representational role. This is demonstrated in Box 1 on page 8 of this report which quotes Young and Rao's finding that there was a "radical mismatch between what councillors aspire to do and what the pressures of council business require them to do".